Bringing the Kids into the Kitchen with Everyday Cooking (A Homeschool Crew Review)

Do you remember in school having home economic class?  I believe I took it in 6th grade myself. I would enter a classroom that contained banks of stoves, a few refrigerators, and sewing machines and for a semester, I would learn how to read recipes, cook meals and learn to sew.  My daughter recently graduated from High School and I'm sad to report, Home Economics has fallen to the wayside.  These skills must either now be learned at home or they must be learned on their own - otherwise they will find themselves living on a diet of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, ramen noodles (if they can figure out how to boil water) and microwave pizza.

Because I don't want my kids to be in that situation, I've taken it upon myself to bring the kids into the kitchen with me - Garrett included.  I'm always on the look out for new recipes that are more "kid friendly" when it comes to skill levels.  When I got the opportunity to review the digital version of  Everyday Cooking from Everyday Homemaking , it caught my attention.  I thought it would be fun to let the kids have their own cookbook with healthy but hearty food that they could prepare with very little help.

We were given the option of downloading either the Blue Cover or Pink Cover edition. The two editions have identical content outside of just a different color covers.  We opted for the Pink cover option, which was easily downloaded to my Kindle.

Everyday Cooking is a 198 page downloadable PDF ebook filled with tons of recipes and cooking tips written by Vicki Bentley of Everyday Homemaking. It is also available as a spiral bound physical copy if you prefer.   With recipes from Belgium Waffles to Eggplant Parmesan, this cookbook is broken down easily into catagories such as Breakfast Ideas, Appetizers, Main Dishes, Soups and Snacks.  There are even sections for Gluten Free and Low Carb and Pressure Cooking. In addition to tons of family friendly recipes, there are also pages of kitchen tips and tricks to make pulling together a wholesome meal for your family easily and hassle free.

One great addition to this book is the index found at the back which lists the recipe name and page number for quick reference.   I really appreciate when cookbooks include these types of indexes in the back of the books, as opposed to being listed by ingredients.


How We Used It

I knew that I needed to find a recipe right out of the gate that I knew the kids already enjoyed and would be simple enough for them to read the directions themselves and able to assemble.  We quickly found a recipe for Deviled Eggs in the Appetizer section.  Since my kids absolutely love Deviled Eggs, I knew this would be a good introduction to the cookbook for them. With 6 easy to measure ingredients and only requiring one bowl, one spoon and a plate to put them on so that they wouldn't destroy the kitchen, we set out to make a few eggs to go along with our Lunch. For this particular recipe, Ashleigh got to play chef.

 Ashleigh had a great time using the measuring spoons to carefully measure out the mustard, mayonaise, salt and vinegar she needed to add to the yolks of our eggs and mixing it all up.

And of course, being able to stuff the eggs with the mixture when it was all mixed was a huge hit.

Then, she carefully put the paprika over the top.  Typically, we usually leave this part off because she always thinks it's going to be hot like cayenne, but this time I convinced her to go ahead and put it on.. Yes, she's sitting on the cabinet because she got tired of leaning over.. lol

This recipe got a thumbs up and was devoured pretty quickly by both Garrett and Ashleigh.

A few days later, it was Garrett's turn in the kitchen. Garrett decided he wanted to take a shot at making the Chicken and Broccoli Alfredo Stuffed Shells that we found in the main dishes section of the book.

Getting busy stuffing the shells.

 Ashleigh didn't want to be left out (even though she had no problem leaving Garrett out of making the eggs) so she joined in with stuffing the shells as well.

Read to go into the oven :)

We also decided to make one of the breads that we found in the book to go along with the pasta, although we added a few ingredients of our own (rosemary and roasted garlic) to compliment the dinner.   This bread was a real hit with the entire family and has quickly become a favorite that they are begging for.

The final product - Chicken and Broccoli Alfredo Stuffed Shells.  These were so yummy. While we had made stuffed shells before, we had never made this variation of them before and the kids ate them up without hesitation, even with the broccoli in them (which Ashleigh usually turns her nose up at).

We also tried a few other recipes that are included - but that I totally forgot to take pictures during the preparation. One of these was the Chicken Schnitzel which turned out absolutely amazing and was another hit with the family.  The kids might have had a little too much fun pounding our chicken breasts thin with the meat hammer.


What We Thought

Overall, I am very happy with this cookbook.  While these are not recipes you're going to consider serving for an upclass dinner party, this is a very good collection of homestyle cooking with enough options to give plenty of variety, even for the most picky eaters in your family.  The list of ingredients as well a the step by step instructions make it very easy for younger cooks to follow properly.  I know my kids were pretty proud to have whipped up a few different recipes "all by themselves" (with supervision).  Also, the tips are very helpful for those not completely comfortable in the kitchen or who may be unfamiliar with a particular recipe.  For example: when we were following the Deviled Eggs recipe, there was a reminder to not toss the egg yolks away and to mix them in with the other ingredients.  Another example is while we were preparing the Chicken Schnitzel, it gave tips on other ingredients that could be used for coating in order to make the recipe Gluten free.

There are many other recipes besides the small handful that we have tried so far that I am looking forward to allowing the kids to prepare.  In my opinion, this is a great addition to any kitchen but especially for those who would like to bring the kids into the kitchen and start teaching them Cooking 101.

The digital edition of Everyday Cooking can be purchased at the Everyday Homemaking Website for $15.99.  Personally, I find it to be much more than just a cook book and can easily be used in incorporating a home economics course in our homeschool schedule.  There's so much information beyond just recipes that I find it has a high educational value.

To learn more about Everyday Homemaking and the Everyday Cooking cookbook, please visit their website.  You can also find them on Facebook at   https://www.facebook.com/everydayhomemaking .

Ann McCallum Books (A Schoolhouse Crew Review)

 I would like to invite you to enter a world of an alternative reality.  In this reality, my kids beg to do their math assignments, eager to learn about things like the Fibonacci sequence, Tessellations, and Probabilities.  To say they beg would be an understatement, in this reality, they pester me about doing extra math assignments even though they have JUST finished their previous assignment less than an hour before.    If I told you this alternative reality was my actual reality, you would assume that either I was exaggerating or that I have extremely nerdy kids.    Neither of these would be the case.

The truth is, we had the opportunity to review the book Eat Your Math Homework: Recipes for Hungry Minds from Ann McCallum books.   Written by Ann McCallum, this is just one book in a series which introduces educational concepts using recipes and yummy treats as a tool for learning.

Eat Your Math Homework is a 48 page paperback book that introduces kids to six different math concepts that take your kids out of the classroom and into the kitchen. The book opens with an introduction as well as kitchen safety tips for getting started and then ends with a math review that covers what was taught with each lesson as well as a glossary to help with definitions.  The full color pictures are cute and eye catching for younger students and the concepts taught are easy to understand, even for the youngest of kids.   This holds especially true when you have two students like my own who think with their stomachs before anything else.

Straight out of the gate, my kids decided they wanted to start with the middle of the book and make the "Tessellating Two Color Brownies" which teaches the concepts of repeating polygon patterns called tessellations.  While they were looking through the book, the idea of making various "pictures" out of their food really caught their attention and they knew this was what they wanted to do first.  (Of course, they had to pick the most difficult recipe out of the book to try first.. haha).

Well, lets just say if they are going to "eat their math homework", I made them do the homework

themselves in order to eat.  The recipes are very easy to follow and all I needed to do was help them measure out the ingredients and help them read the recipe for them.  Beyond that, I allowed the kids to do everything else on their own.   They had so much fun making these brownies on their own and they were great about taking turns pouring ingredients into the bowl and mixing everything up.   I would LOVE to show you a picture of the finished product but unfortunately, they gobbled up several of them before they had even cooled off (Note to parents:  put these up someplace safe while cooling or experience the same fate).

So I'm sure your asking yourself : Sure, your kids made brownies but did they actually learn anything?   Well,  I'll leave this with you - how many 2nd graders do you know would have a conversation with you in regards to whether or not a dodecahedron would be considered a tessellation?

Not all the included recipes are as labor intensive as making sugar covered brownies.  An introduction to simple fractions were easily handled using some well seasoned tortillas and a pizza cutter, while the concept of Pi is made delicious with a personal pizza.

We really enjoyed this book.  It was a lot of fun for us to actually put our math book away for a couple of weeks and concentrate instead on these fun recipes.  While each recipe concentrates on one particular math concept, kids are using other learned math concepts while measuring and mixing for each recipe.  Not all the recipes in this book involve turning on the oven, such as the trail mix that teaches about probability or the snack sticks that teach the Fibonacci sequence, but each recipe is fun and the kids found them to be very yummy.

This is only one book out of a series of "Eat Your Homework" books. Other titles include Eat Your US History Homework and Eat Your Science Homework.   Ann McCallum Books also offers picture books for younger students that introduces them to mathematical concepts in through fun stories.   Members of the Crew got to review each of these other books in addition to this one, so be sure to click over and read what the others have to say about this wonderful series.